Quest for Faster Times Is Still an Uphill Battle

It took more than a decade for Bill Burke to admit it.

Now, though, the president of the Los Angeles Marathon has concluded that L.A.’s race will never rival marathons in Chicago, London, Berlin and Amsterdam by producing lightning-fast performances.

The L.A. Marathon, which will be run for the 18th time Sunday, might never have the rich tradition of Boston or New York, either. But Burke and Marie Patrick, marathon executive vice president, say they’re content with the race’s continuing growth and its development into an event that gives up-and-coming runners, rather than world-class performers, a chance to shine.

“I wanted to get the best runners we could in the early years,” Burke said. “But in the last five or six years, our goal has been to find some people to make stars out of. To bring in some up-and-coming runners and let this be their breakthrough race.”

The date of the L.A. Marathon -- it falls five to seven weeks before marathons in Paris, London, Boston and Rotterdam, the Netherlands -- and a course that is not as fast as those in some other cities also hinder its ability to produce elite performances.

“It would take an intervention of God,” Burke said when asked about the possibility of a world record being set in the L.A. Marathon. “If you want to keep the flavor of the race, you’ve got to have it go through the different [ethnic and cultural] parts of Los Angeles. And in order to do that, you’ve got to run up some hills.”

Patrick concurred.

“L.A. is a difficult city to develop a fast marathon in,” she said. “There are a lot of hills in this city.... Runners love L.A. because they can come here and test themselves on a hard course and have a chance to win.”

Hills add character to a marathon and serve as points on a course where a race is made or broken. But they’re not good for fast times.

That was the main reason Burke and Co. scrapped the L.A. Marathon course in use from the mid-1990s to 2001 for a flatter layout last year.

The new course was touted as one that could help someone lower the L.A. record of 2 hours 9 minutes 25 seconds set by Simon Bor of Kenya in 1999. But when Kenyan Stephen Ngundu became the first man to win consecutive men’s titles last year, his career best of 2:10:27 was well off Bor’s mark.

That shows how crucial it is for marathon organizers to attract top runners to their race if they want to produce noteworthy times.

Ngundu can outrun 99.999% of the people on the planet, but it would be a stretch to call him one of the top 50 marathoners in the world. His 2:10:27 best tied for 73rd on last year’s world list and made him the 37th-fastest performer from Kenya, which produces distance runners in abundance.

Khalid Khannouchi, a Moroccan who gained U.S. citizenship in 2000, set the world best of 2:05:38 in London last year in a race in which four men ran under 2:07.

If Burke hopes to see the “2:07 or 2:08” he says is possible in Los Angeles, he might have to start paying some hefty appearance fees.

Los Angeles will pay $125,000 in prize money to the top 10 finishers in the men’s and women’s races Sunday, but that figure pales in comparison to the $500,000 purse Chicago offered last year, or the $445,000 Boston will have in April when it runs its 107th annual race.

Appearance money, though, ultimately lures the top runners to marathons.

“The bottom line is, without question, appearance fees,” said Allan Steinfeld, race director of the New York City Marathon since 1994. “The top runners want the guaranteed money. And then they can focus on [running] a particular time and getting their bonus money.”

Most race directors will not say how much they pay in appearance fees, but Chicago Marathon Director Carey Pinkowski did say that runners such as Khannouchi and Paula Radcliffe of Britain had six-figure contracts to run in Chicago last October.

Steinfeld says Radcliffe’s appearance fee was rumored to have been $250,000 for the London Marathon last year and Pinkowski says Radcliffe made more than $500,000, what with appearance fee, prize money and bonuses, when she ran a women’s world-best time of 2:17:18 in Chicago.

“Obviously, if you’re talking about a Khalid Khannouchi, a Paula Radcliffe, a Catherine Ndereba, a Paul Tergat, or any of the top five runners in the world, appearance fees are very important,” Pinkowski said. “You’re not going to get the top runners without paying for them.”

Rosa Mota of Portugal, the 1988 women’s Olympic champion, received a $100,000 appearance fee to run in the 1989 L.A. Marathon, according to Patrick. But marathon organizers haven’t paid appearance fees in recent years.

“I don’t feel the need to try to be like those other marathons,” Patrick said. “Our race is for the runners who haven’t broken into the top 10 yet, but have the ability to.”

All of which means that Burke has about given up on seeing someone challenge or break a world record in Los Angeles.

“Do I want a world record? Who wouldn’t?,” Burke said. “Will I be able to stay competitive with the other big marathons in putting on a quality, well-run race? Absolutely. But we’re never going to be a Rotterdam, a London or a Chicago. I don’t think we’re ever going to break a world record.”

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Marathon Facts

SUNDAY’S RACE

What: 18th Los Angeles Marathon.

When: Wheelchair race starts at 8:10 a.m. Marathon starts at 8:30.

Where: Race starts near intersection of Figueroa and 6th streets and finishes near intersection of Flower and 5th.

Last year’s champions: Men -- Stephen Ngundu, Kenya, 2:10:27. Women -- Lyubov Denisova, Russia, 2:28:49.

Television: 8 a.m., Channel 4 (English), Channel 52 (Spanish).

Fast facts: With 18,737 finishers last year, the L.A. Marathon was the seventh-largest marathon in the world and fourth-largest in the U.S.

By the numbers: The marathon needs close to 4,000 water station volunteers, 200 radio operators, 200 registrars and 90 massage therapists.